Paved With Good Intentions
by Khrysoprase
Summary: Eugene's hacking abilities turned up a lot more information on Billy's dad than he shared with him. It isn't the right time. It may never be.


**Author's Note:** Rated for mentions of violence, one explicitly violent details, mentions of abuse, and swearing. Although given the swearing in the movie, that last point shouldn't offend anyone in this fandom.

* * *

Cevahir Cecil Batson's legal record was readily available to a competent enough hacker.

Eugene doesn't give Billy the files he's found on his dad. After how bad the meeting with his mom went, Billy's definitely not ready to read up on his dad, and Eugene doesn't know how he'd tell him anyway. His dad is in a psych ward at a prison, far away from him and the life his son's living. They have a family here, with brothers and sisters and cool parents who love all of them. Billy deserves to have some time to be happy with them. When he told the about his mom, Darla mandated they have a big sleepover in the living room to cheer him up and Billy did his best not to cry. He tried to enjoy it. He's trying _a lot_ lately. He wants to be happy, to have a family, to be a good superhero.

Knowing his dad is a murderer isn't going to help that, any of that. So Eugene keeps his mouth shut, for now.

In a way, C.C. seems better than Billy's mom, at least, even if that's not exactly a high bar to reach. Billy's mom left because she wanted to. C.C. left because he was forced to by the police. His mom signed off custody of him; his dad wasn't allowed to weigh in on the decision at all. Eugene's not sure if it would matter to Billy, though. Either way, he's out of Billy's life entirely these days – they don't let prisoners who are in the psych ward contact children, and if they did it wouldn't matter since he doesn't have any idea where Billy is. And that sucks, because if Eugene were a day he'd be super happy to know his kid was a superhero. (Eugene has never contemplated having kids before but _holy crap_ he wants to lead a family team of heroes someday. Hopefully the Shazam powers are genetic.)

Billy's a lot like his dad. Running away, experiments in drinking underage, a lot of swearing. Just, so much. C.C. makes Billy look like a saint, every line of his report to the police filled with things like 'I'm from West-by-fucking-God Virginia, moonshine is fucking mandatory' and 'he stuck his fucking dick in a goddamn child, of course I fucking stabbed him – the fuck else was I supposed to do?'

That last statement, accidentally not redacted in a report, makes Eugene go cold all over. He looks into it while Billy adjusts to life with the family and they get ready for New Year's. On some level, he knows it's going to be bad. People don't end up in psych wards at maximum security prisons for jaywalking. And he's played _LA Noire_, he's watched livestreams of _Detroit: become Human_ and _Doki Doki Literature Club_. He knows what sexual assault, crimes in self-defense and mental illness are, kind of, more than a lot of kids do.

But when he does some deeper digging, he throws up after he finds out _why_ Billy's dad went to prison.

Marilyn's dad was physically abusive for years. Eugene can't puzzle out the reports enough to figure out when the sexual abuse started, just that it was bad, so bad she ran away from home to go live with her boyfriend where it was safe. He broke into her parent's house, stole a breathtaking amount of money, and they left West Virginia for the Midwest, where nobody knew them.

At some point her dad caught up to her, and according to the police report, knocked her out and had been approaching Billy when C.C., having just gotten home from work, grabbed a letter opener off the entryway table, ran at his father-in-law and stabbed him.

He stabbed him seventy-seven times.

The only reasons he hadn't been charged with first-degree murder were that it was self-defense and that he was seventeen and technically a minor. The latent diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder might've helped, too.

_I can _**_never_**_ tell Billy this_, is Eugene's first thought. His second thought is,_ good, her dad deserved it._ The thought makes him wince guiltily. He's a superhero now. He can't just wish death on people like that. Good guys don't do that. But Marilyn's dad, Fredrick, was an awful person. He hurt her in ways Eugene's only heard about from other foster kids in whispers. He's seen those kids in other homes, seen them jump at their own shadow, cry in their sleep, scream when touched. Eugene isn't sure he wouldn't Hadouken the people who hurt them if he had the chance. Even though he's too young to really understand what happened, he knows it's one of the worst things a person can do to another. Plus attacking a baby is just evil. So maybe he's not a total bad guy. C.C. had every right to get angry at somebody trying to hurt his family. But stabbing someone that many times was definitely not necessary – Eugene is pretty sure, from video games, that once or twice is all it really takes.

But, but, but. And, and, and. He's not sure what to think about the guy. He's less sure of what Billy will think, if he tells him. Billy's trying to move forward and he's happy. Maybe it's better not to let him know about his crazy, depressed, perpetually drunk dad. It's dishonest. He knows that. He knows he's a jerk for not telling his brother about this stuff. Yet whenever he thinks about it at night, laying awake knowing Billy's out there fighting crime, it feels like he'd be a jerk to tell him and stress him out when he's got that whole superhero thing going on. Eugene's trying to be a good guy. He's more into video game heroes than superheroes, but either way he knows heroes don't hurt their family. Billy's a good brother, now that he's mellowed out a little. He's good at _Fortnite_, he loves _Pokemon_, and he helps Darla with her quest to make her _Animal Crossing_ town the best town ever. He and Pedro have tutoring sessions where he helps Pedro navigate math despite being dyslexic, something Billy picked up at a previous group home. Mary and Billy sometimes watch romcoms together, although he'd sooner be shot than admit it. He and Freddy are practically inseparable at school.

He's happy than he's ever been. Eugene feels like fistbumping Darla every time she gets Billy to hug her back, wants to high-five Freddy for getting him to stay. This is so cool, having another brother, having somebody they all get along with. Billy's never had that before. Eugene knows that from the length of Billy's file, from all the truancy, skipping classes, getting into fights – things that echo his father's record. He thinks maybe, they're the only thing keeping Billy from losing his temper and hurting someone badly. Billy wouldn't kill anybody, sure, but he definitely used his powers for revenge when Freddy got bullied, and that'd get worse if he didn't have a family to help tell him when he was going too far.

And Eugene's worried that if C.C. got out of prison, if he sat down and explained why he did what he did to Billy, Billy would forgive him and go live with him and his paternal grandparents in Florida. They're Billy's new family, but C.C. killed somebody to keep Billy safe.

Can they compete with that? Can they convince Billy they love him more than that? Would Eugene do that for Billy? Freddy might. Mary might – she shot at Sivana, kind of. It's not the same thing, though.

He puts the papers in Victor's office in the 'to shred' pile, far from where Billy will find them, and feels both relieved and like a total asshole.

_If Billy ever asks, I'll re-hack stuff and give it to him. When he wants it._

It's a cop-out, kind of, but it's enough, for now.


End file.
